Subject: Re: DSK Woes and other stories
From: Rubywand <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2000 05:53:05 -0500
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2

Frank Townsend writes ...
> 
> Can someone help me understand why a DSK image might work perfectly on an
> emulator (AppleWin, nifty, BTW, kudos to MichaelO'Brien) but fail to expand
> and produce a functioning floppy?
> 
> I do the following:
> 
> 1.  Put the image on a MacLCII (FTP via LAN from PC)
> 2.  ProType it
> 3.  Copy to a ProDos floppy
> 
> All these steps work to create functioning ProDos Apple II files in every
> other case.
> 

     Good to know. I guess the key is that the Mac LCII is not using some
version of System which insists upon forking ProDOS files.

> Then:
> 
> 4.  Run DSK2FILE, which
> 5.  Makes a 140k floppy track-by-track with no errors, which
> 6.  Will not boot "Unable to Load ProDos"
> 
> Aaaaargh!!!!!

     It sounds like you have a Dsk with ProDOS content-- i.e. it is supposed to
boot ProDOS-- which the creator of the Dsk felt needed to have ProDOS sector
ordering. (Not so. In fact, the standard sector ordering for 5.25" .dsk disk
images is DOS 3.3 ordering whether or not the dsk boots DOS 3.3.)

     On the PC you had a .dsk file with ProDOS sector ordering which worked
fine because the emulator checks .dsk files to find the ordering used.

     But, when you converted the .dsk file to diskette you probably used
DSK2FILE's default "DOS 3.3 sector order" setting. This messed up the placement
(naming) of the sectors on the disk, except for Sector 0 on each track (which
is the same for DOS 3.3 and ProDOS).

     So, you have a diskette which can be detected as ProDOS with jumbled up
stuff which leads to a crash.

     Probably, you can get a good diskette if you set DSK2FILE to use ProDOS
sector ordering when it does the conversion. (Or, if you used ProDOS sector
ordering the first time, switch to DOS 3.3 ordering.)

Rubywand